Chennai: Incessant rains drenching ‘Singaara Chennai’ for the last two days could have brought back the frightening memories of December deluge of 2015 to city residents. But, the 82mm rainfall on Wednesday has helped Chennai almost touch its all time record in 1996.
The sudden downpour is the highest one day rainfall, the city received for June-September season, beating the previous record of 72.6mm that occurred on September 2, 2016. According to the data availed from the Indian Meteorological department, Chennai city has received 82mm on Wednesday-Thursday while airport noted 77mm.
Wiping off the rumours that the rains are a result of the NE monsoon, officials from regional meteorological centre said that the downpour is due to convection activity. “The rains are typical September rains happening at late nights with slow moving in nature,” said the official.
As on Thursday morning, Chennai city has recorded 296.6 mm for the month, coming close to the 1996 record of 314.50 mm. Weather blogger Pradeep John said, “This is the wettest September since 1996. In 2011, the city got 286.2 mm rainfall.”
The previous highest was 72.6 mm recorded on September 2nd, 2016. On 29th September the rainfall in the city was 82.3 mm, he mentioned.
Reduction in the rainfall activity is forecasted in the next two days, experts said. Downpour concentrated in Chennai coast was not intense in other Tamil Nadu districts. Highest rainfall was noted in Uthiramerur which noted 113 mm (as on 8.30am on Thursday) and Tambaram at 110mm.
South Chennai areas hit by power outages
Heavy rain that lashed the city on Wednesday night resulted in power outage in various parts of the city, particularly, South Chennai. Power went off for over two to three hours in places like Tambaram, Madambakk am, Chrompet, Okkiyum Thoraipakkam, Guindy and Kodambakkam due to rain.
Krithika, a resident of Sundar Nagar, Ekkattuthangal, complained that her work schedule was affected due to a power cut that lasted the entire night. “Once the power went off at around midnight following rain. I couldn’t sleep due to mosquito menace. So I kept awake and only slept for a brief while in the morning,” she lamented that Tangedco workers did not restore the power till Thursday afternoon despite her complaint to their office.
K. Ganesh, a Kodambakkam complained that worst was that nobody attended telephone call in fuse off office when he tried to make a complaint. “We were clueless as to when will the power return,” he said.
A senior Tangedco official said that power outage was witnessed in Kodambakkam, Tambaram and Madambakkam for over two hours due to heavy rain along with strong winds.
“Since many parts of South Chennai still have over head transmission lines, power lines get tripped due to strong winds,” the official said, adding that power was restored to all the areas by 1 am.
The official said that instructions has been given to the local offices to carry out pre-monsoon works like replacing damaged poles, repairing hanging lines and trimming tree branches.
“In the waterlogging prone areas, height of the pillar boxes has been increased by two to three feet. Sand bags have been kept in the sub stations flooded last year,” the official noted.
